There is a rec'd diary about Dowd's op-ed piece about the reporting (or lack thereof)on the racism in some opposition to Obama. And yes, we've heard a whole lot about how racism made Joe Wilson scream during Obama's speech ), or how racism was behind Skip Gates' arrest (since that'd never happen to a white person, right?). Powerful stuff.
but it misses the point. Or maybe, rather, it's important to say there's more to the story.
Actually, it misses it by about 2 inches, since the (another?) real story was next door in Barbara Ehrenreich's piece, which hasn't been diaried as far as I can tell. Yes, racism is alive and doing far too well in America, but Dowd's examples aren't the (whole) real story. Instead, the real story of racism is the unflashy, day-to-day experience that leads to more friction for black people than for white. This day-to-day is laid out brilliantly in an op-ed piece by (another white woman) and something of a hero of mine, Barbara Ehrenreich, along with Dedrick Muhammad.
This is where the fight really lies.
I am writing this in part out of frustration with how racism is discussed on this blog. Instead of these symbolic examples, we should not lose sight of the economic status of our African American countrymen and women? (see also this diary by cherbear on the census data, and this one on white privilege. You might like these.) You want to see racism in action? Forget Skip Gates. Look to the average hardworking black men and women who don't have retirement accounts. Look to the economic impacts of the "downturn" on whites and blacks. That's where the rubber meets the road.
Several commenters have rightly taken me to task for being too dismissive of the political stories as a part of the strategy. Instead, let me offer that as we go forward, we have to keep this larger picture in mind. It's this story that keeps me up at night. After all, Skip Gates is happily back in his Cambridge home. Can't be said for these folks.
In her latest piece, Ehrenreich and Muhammad(if you haven't read Nickle and Dimed, buy a copy now), report on the economic trends since 2000 among African Americans
It is sobering reading. This is the real face of racism in this country.
A few salient points:
for African-Americans the recession is over. It occurred from 2000 to 2007, as black employment decreased by 2.4 percent and incomes declined by 2.9 percent. During those seven years, one-third of black children lived in poverty, and black unemployment — even among college graduates — consistently ran at about twice the level of white unemployment.
A recession is defined as contracting economic activity. For the nation of African Americans, if tallied as a separate economic unit, we're in the ninth year of the recession. If it recession is over, it's because a full depression has bitten home. Nine years.
Why is this so? A whole host of reasons, some historical, some more recent.
Perhaps this might be because employers respond differently to identical resumes with stereotypical white names more favorably than those with stereotypically black names A black man named John or Craig will do better than Kashawn. why? Applicants with white-sounding names were 50 percent more likely to be contacted for job interviews than those with typical black names. There were no significant differences between the rates at which men and women were contacted. A one-third handicap just at the interview stage is massive.
The result is predictable. In this economy, for blacks, it's even worse
Black unemployment is now at 15.1 percent, compared with 8.9 percent for whites.
15.1 percent. If that is not a horrendous indictment of the society we have built, I don't know what is.
As she so often does, Ehrenreich connects the dots. The racial bias in the day-to-day decisions, leads to a massive worsening in people's economic situations. While the political sound and fury of the tea baggers is exciting, it is the dead dull actions of HR managers and bankers that is wreaking a disaster across our country.
Thanks to a legacy of a discrimination in both hiring and lending, (African American are) less likely than whites to be cushioned against the blows by wealthy relatives or well-stocked savings accounts. In 2008, on the cusp of the recession, the typical African-American family had only a dime for every dollar of wealth possessed by the typical white family. Only 18 percent of blacks and Latinos had retirement accounts, compared with 43.4 percent of whites.
Of course, it would seem clear that given bank's history of redlining, by the start of the millenium, even afluent African Americans had been left without financing before the onset of "subprime" predatory lending wave. This pent up demand of course left African Americans more subject to the financial industry's morally bankrupt practices, even without the racial bias in credit standards. The net result is that blacks have taken a much huger hit from the foul deeds on Wall Street.
As Ehrenreich puts it:
Mortgage lenders like Countrywide and Wells Fargo sought out minority homebuyers for the heartbreakingly simple reason that, for decades, blacks had been denied mortgages on racial grounds, and were thus a ready-made market for the gonzo mortgage products of the mid-’00s.
Yes, there's racism in America, but the worst parts of it aren't to be seen in Joe Wilson's pathetic outbursts. It's in the dealings of those who enabled the subprime meltdown.
It's not just housing, but savings, too. As Ehrenreich notes out,
Only 18 percent of blacks and Latinos had retirement accounts, compared with 43.4 percent of whites.
If you are interested in more, I would point you to the rest of the articles in the series: Too Poor to Make the News, A Homespun Safety Net, and Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?
Whether racism is the elephant in the room for reporting on the opposition to Obama might be rooted in racism or other policy differences , if you want to see real devastating effects of racism, it isn't in the open animus toward Obama. It's in the daily friction of unconscious bias of managers and bankers.
While there are those who would spent a lot of time and energy trying to show that Joe Wilson or James Crowley are racists, we'd get a lot further generating real support for ending racism by showing this kind of pernicious effect in our society. While individual incidents are too susceptible to parsing into individual unknown facts, these overall trends cannot be so denied.
Symbols are powerful, true, but it is the accumulation of mundane decisions that shapes the lives of millions.
UPDATE: yes, now I understand all those "thank you for my first rec!" notes, since it's quite a shock to see! Many thanks for all the wonderful discussion. It restores my faith in you all.
Also, I don't want to suggest perhaps as forcefully as it appeared that the other discussion/diary on Dowd's piece isn't worthwhile. It is a great one too. HOwever, I wanted to say that for me, that this is a more compelling motivator when I have to ask myself "so, what action am I goign to take today?"
Finally, in full disclosure, it might help if I pointed out that I'm a very privileged, middle aged white man. So, yes, some (many) of us notice, are angry at the injustice, and care enough to ask what we can do to make this a better country for all of us.
Thank you all for the kind words!